21st Century Washington, D.C. Freeway System

The government wants to spend trillions on COVID relief and upon infrastructure.  But will they dare ever do anything about the inadequate and incomplete Washington D.C. freeway system?

Builds upon and corrects deficiencies of past planning.

Corrects capacity and geometric restrictions at the northern Capital Beltway Rock Creek Park passage, with Capital Beltway entirely buried from Wisconsin Avenue to Seminary Road in box tunnel beneath an expanded Rock Creek Park.

Designs a Central Artery - B&O Route North Central Freeway - faithful to the 1962 JFK Administration endorsed concept that the feds undermined following 1963.  It would be fed from the northwest with its own carriageway connections to I-270 via the above reconstructed Beltway segment.  And it would be fed from the northeast via a tunnel alongside New Hampshire Avenue for the PEPCO power line corridor I-95, further refined as a cut and cover tunnelway design for an expanded RR and a new bottleneck free highway beneath a new linear park- what would be Washington, D.C.'s new North Mall/Grand Arc.

Reconstructs the SWSE Freeway from just west of Washington Channel to at least 3rd Street SE as an expanded cut and cover tunnel, with added capacity to eliminate the northeast to southwest traffic flow bottleneck for the Center Leg-SW Freeway combo.  Augments the Center Leg with parallel tunnels under 2nd and 3rd Street, with tunnel extension to the northeast under O Street for a single block west and east of North Capital Street.  Restores the recently decommissioned east of 11th Street SE Freeway as box tunnel covered facility, under a new surface boulevard, and extends this past Barney Circle, under a new pedestrian waterfront promenade to RFK Stadium/East Capital Street, with box tunnel continuing to the northwest to connect with the North Mall/Grand Arc Central Artery to I-270 and I-95.  The design would include a set of tunnel links crossing each other descending to pass under the Anacostia River, initially of a north-south I-295East Leg tunnel, and subsequently - as part of what could be a subsequent project to reconstruct the 11th Street Bridge approaches underground - an easterly SE Freeway link to a DC295 corridor reconstructed in cut and cover tunnel, with separate carriageways for north-south I-295, and east-west traffic, promoted by a new cross Potomac Tunnel to Virginia 110, optionally designated as I-66.

Design a NW system of radials and intercepting downtown system: westerly; an I-266 starting in Virginia via a 3 Sisters Tunnel, and west-northwesterly via a Canal Road Tunnel with a completed Clara Barton Parkway, merging together entirely within tunnel under the Georgetown waterfront, with West Leg connections to and from the south, and then K Street with a parallel tunnel under N Street-Rhode Island Avenue-O Street, to connect with the Central Artery; a north-northwesterly drilled NW Freeway tunnel emanating from the Wisconsin Avenue corridor into a reconstructed West Leg that splits to its south to: 1) a cross Potomac Tunnel to Virginia Route 27; and 2) a connection to a reconstructed, more capacious, underground SWSE Freeway.

 

New Development Threat To New York Avenue Area I-395/new I-195 Extension

New public right of way threat: "Douglas Development" 557 unit residential building, architects HOK Architects, to be built upon now empty triangle between O Street and the heavily used North Capitol Street and New York Avenue.

Take a close look- 

way more building displacement along the west side of North Capitol Street?

See:  https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/douglas-development-pitches-557-unit-development/17764

O Street is by far the best alignment for a tunneled extension of I-195 (I-395 is being re-named) to the northeast, presenting the best geometry (the curved transition has a greater turning radii of any of the alternate plans, even those from the 1950s, let alone the horrifically deficient 1996 "Ron Linton" plan) with comparably little displacement.

The O Street Tunnel would use the entire right of way with, as defined by the northern edge of the recently built Dunbar High School building, removing the buildings to the east along the southern side of that street for one (1) block, with that right of way continuing due east of North Capitol Street through the now empty lands to the vicinity of the Wendy's ("Dave Thomas Circle"), before turning to follow the northern side of New York Avenue to the confluence of the two main railroad corridors.

Where is new U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on this?  

Does he support an O Street I-195/I-395 tunnel to fix that area so it can be better developed than it would otherwise be as an open traffic sewer?  Does he support of a truly comprehensive transportation plan that gets our Capital City highway system back on track with a modern primarily underground express system, with its centerpiece of a multi-model, linear park covered North Mall/Grand Arc project establishing needed highway links, along with improved rail service, all designed to fit together.

Or does he support Washington DC's traditional economic/environmental racism of "de-emphasizing" the 3rd Street Tunnel/Center Leg (see my numerous posts on this blog regarding DEVELOPER THREATS TO OUR RIGHT OF WAYS), with the longstanding local Washington D.C. racist polices of pushing the traffic burden disproportionately upon the area's least affluent areas in SE?